Governor declares heroin 'epidemic' a public health emergency

Gov. Deval Patrick on Thursday declared a public health emergency in response to what his office called a “a growing epidemic” of heroin addiction, and pledged $20 million to beef up drug treatment programs.

BOSTON – For years, police, health care leaders and parents of addicts have been asking for expanded drug treatment programs and tighter controls on narcotic painkillers, and for regulators to keep new powerful prescription drugs off the street.

On Thursday, Gov. Deval Patrick took emergency steps aimed at making that happen.

The governor declared a public health emergency in response to the growing heroin problem statewide. The declaration authorizes Department of Public Health Commissioner Cheryl Bartlett to make the overdose-reversing drug Narcan available without a prescription for the first time.

It also allows Bartlett to immediately ban the sale of the new highly potent painkiller Zohydro, which does not have tamper-resistant safeguards, and to force doctors and pharmacists to sign up to access a state database that tracks prescriptions for narcotics.

Patrick also pledged to pump $20 million into expanding treatment programs.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Patrick said The Enterprise and The Patriot Ledger have been leaders in coverage of this issue. He said he's spoken to people affected by addiction who were encouraged to reach out to him because of the reporting by the papers.

The governor said the toll from heroin and prescription painkillers has crossed all social and geographic boundaries.

“It’s touching every kind of person in every kind of community in every corner of the commonwealth,” he said. “That, to me, is, by definition, a public health crisis.”

Police, prosecutors, elected officials and advocates in communities south of Boston for years have been calling attention to a growing opiate problem that is blamed for fueling crime and sending addicts teeming into jail cells, emergency rooms and morgues.

There were 61 confirmed fatal overdoses in Norfolk County last year. There were 39 in Plymouth County.

The Patriot Ledger and The Enterprise of Brockton have been closely covering the issue of heroin and painkiller addiction south of Boston for the past seven years. An editorial that ran March 1 in both papers called on the governor to convene a task force including health care professionals, law enforcement officials, lawmakers and families affected by addiction.

The editorial elicited more than 40 letters from readers, which were delivered to the governor Thursday. Some of the letter writers also contacted him directly, Patrick said.

The governor announced Thursday that the state will expand its Interagency Council on Substance Abuse and Prevention, which will present recommendations for further steps within 60 days.

Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey, who has expanded Narcan training among first responders and called on federal regulators to make it available over the counter, said he was pleased with Patrick’s actions.

“We were maybe one step ahead of them, but today we’re all together and heading in the right direction,” he said. “The fight’s not over.”

Page 2 of 2 - State Sen. John Keenan, D-Quincy, who sponsored legislation that strengthened requirements for doctors to use a database tracking narcotic prescriptions and has sought tougher regulations on drugmakers, said the governor sent a “clear message” by banning Zohydro.

But the drug’s manufacturer, San Diego-based Zogenix, said the governor’s decision will hurt chronic pain sufferers.

“We believe it’s a very sad day for patients suffering from chronic pain in my home state of Massachusetts,” Zogenix Chief Medical Officer Brad Galen, a Milton native, said. “The governor has taken away a very novel and unique treatment for those patients.”

Zohydro is the first pain medication to contain hydrocodone – the main ingredient in drugs like Vicodin – without combining it with acetaminophen, which can cause liver damage over a long period. Galen said the company is working on a tamper-resistant form of the drug and will work with regulators in Massachusetts.

Dr. Joseph Shrand, medical director of CASTLE (Clean and Sober Teens Living Empowered), part of the High Point Treatment Center in Brockton, said the governor’s declaration underscored the extent of the problem.

“I think it is to (Patrick’s) credit and the credit of the commonwealth that we are finally acknowledging that addiction and overdose is not a moral issue, that it is a public health issue that has for too long been ignored,” he said.

But Peter Thompson, a Braintree resident whose son died of an overdose in 2010, said even with the governor’s latest actions, there’s still a long way to go to stamp out heroin addiction.

“It’s a great start,” he said. “But unfortunately, it’s a late start.”